Use the freebies

Click on the picture for 60 examples

Out there, online and elsewhere, exist trillions of free resources that you may use to learn a language more easily than ever before. You'd be a fool not to.

So get out there and find them.

Half the fun is looking for them!

Turkish delight

I discovered good quality children's stories in Turkish  (and in many other languages) that use subtitles  at the above link. BookBox.com 

Learning another language has never been easier, surely. You don't need to spend money or time finding something suitable. There's no effort involved. What an amazing period in human history!

Make hay while the sun shines.

Language mix-ing it up

So yesterday I cycle down to the local Mac after tea with my 6-year old. We've lights for getting back in the dark. I order a small latte and she's satisfied with milk.

Anyway, at one stage I've got Harry Potter going in German--both audio and text. Following along nicely understanding most of it. For fun I open the Norwegian audiobook. Listen to it while using the German e-book to read. It's a blast!

The languages that I choose to do are to a large extent going to be determined by what resources are available. There's a lot of Polish and Swedish out there (torrents) not to mention Dutch and and a few others.

Next time I'll work out my initial starting points for the languages I've looked at so far. For example:

• Dutch: can understand 75%, can guess the other 25%
• German: understand 50%, guess another 25%
• Swedish: understand 15% guess 25%
• Norwegian: understand 10% guess 20%

Match the activity to the material

So you’ve got yourself some authentic material meant for the users of whatever language you want to learn. In other words, you have a book of some sort—dead tree, electronic or audio. Maybe even a movie . . . comic . . . whatever.

Now what?

Well, it’s not going to be ideal. It’s not going to be perfect. It will be at a level that’s too high for you, or too low. It may not be in an area that you’re interested in. It may be too ‘newsy’ or too ‘chick lit’. Again . . .  whatever.

But that’s okay.

The way to work around this problem is to match whatever activity you do with the material that’s at hand. So you do something suitable with it. Everything is suited for something.

You need to choose what you do to achieve the right balance of a number of factors. (Draw a Venn Diagram if you want.)

Choose what to do with what you’ve got so that . . .

• You process a lot of language: amount
• You minimize the effort: easy
• You maximize the results: effective
• You make it fun: enjoyment

This way, you won’t waste time waiting for the prefect resource to come along.

What DON'T you need to learn another language?

What don’t you need to learn another language? And what do you? My two cents' worth.

I’ll start with what you don’t need. It may surprise you, since this runs counter to the conventional wisdom.

  
You don’t need:

• Willpower. You shouldn't. Your amount of this is limited, and you’ll run out of it if you rely on willpower on a regular basis. What you do should be so arranged that you enjoy doing it.
• Gift. There are far fewer people with a gift for languages than you think. Conversely, almost everyone has the aptitude.
• Time. You don’t need great big chunks of time. Five minutes here and there will mount up. And short bursts are actually better.
• Analytical mind. You need to be interested in order to learn. But to break things up into ever smaller portions won’t help you use a language. You lose speed and fluency.
• Memory. Not short term memory. Long term memory is what you need. And that relies on ‘forgetting’ nonessentials or things you’re not quite ready for.
• A knowledge of grammar. Certainly not the technical terms and whatnot. But an internal feel for what sounds right is another matter.
• Teacher. No you don’t. You need to take charge of your own learning. And the sooner the better.
• Intelligence. What’s the lowest IQ that you need to be able to use your own language? Exactly!
• Materials. Language learning materials are produced to make someone a profit. Just make use of the materials that people of the language you’re interested in are interested in.
• Outgoing personality. No difference has been shown between introverts and extroverts. Not as far as learning a language goes
• Energy. You may choose to spend a lot of energy. But if you need to, then you’re doing it wrong. Energy, like willpower, is limited.

You do need:

• Desire. It helps a lot if there’s something that you have a passion for which requires knowing the language. That’s too wordy . . . You’ve gotta love something about it.
• Reason. The stronger your reason or need to know a language, the more likely you’ll learn it.
• Tenacity. It takes a long time. It isn’t difficult, but progress is slow. So it helps if you are dogged. If you have a history of going long projects.
• Independence. You need to be able to work on your own. You are the best judge about how you learn best. At least you should be.
• Imagination. Imagination will create something interesting out of something boring.
• Open mind. You need to be able to hold of prematurely judging. Every new idea is born drowning.
• Self-belief. If you believe that you won’t be able to do something, then you won’t. Guaranteed. 
• Experience. If you can call on something in your history where you succeeded in learning another language, or with a long course of study, then that’s a big plus. Even if you failed, that will help you avoid future pitfalls.
• Self knowledge. The better you know yourself, your on-buttons and off-buttons the more likely you are to climb ladders and avoid snakes.
• Interest. You need to be alert to notice what’s going on in a language. 
• Patience. It’s going to take time. You don’t need negative self-talk slowing you down even further. Realistically, you need patience.
• Laziness. Finding the easiest and most pleasant way to do things will conserve your resources.
• Pleasure. Enjoy what you do. Otherwise, what’s the point?
• Resourcefulness. Use whatever you have at hand well. Work to your strengths.

Redirect your perfectionism

So you’re a perfectionist. Are you aware that that will have ramifications when it comes to learning a language? That’s because you can’t learn a language tidily. Rather, it’s a messy business.

You’re going to make tones of mistakes. You’re going to forget stuff over and over. You’ll make a fool of yourself speaking. You’ll use the wring word, or you’ll use the right word but in the wrong place. You name it, you’ll do it.

Think of juggling, riding a unicycle, tightrope walking. With every one of them you’ll fall, only to get back up. That goes for any language too—your own also when you started out (and perhaps now too).

But there could still be a place for perfectionism. I believe that you can re-direct it towards your learning techniques and overall system. Search out the very best resources. Tweak endlessly with your routine. Just as long as you’re making gazillions of mistakes along the way.

Inventory time

Carry out an inventory to help you learn a new language.

What have you got that you could make use of?

There's the obvious school-type stuff: dictionaries, books, stationery, textbooks, pens and pencils.

There are the electronic gizmos that you own. Things you switch on and try not to spill coffee over.

There are the intangibles: skills, contacts, knowledge, membership of a library, Internet-knowhow (do you understand torrents?), magazine subscriptions etc.

If you notice gaps, then create a wish list. 

Go shopping.

You want to be able to listen to things, so get the things (CDs, mp3s, DVDs) and make sure you have the equipment to play them on.

You want to have things to read, and not necessarily on paper. Think Kindles and the like. Consider comics. Kids stuff is often good, but it's often overlooked or looked down upon too.

The more complete and comprehensive you make your inventory, the more ideas you'll generate about how to go about learning your new language.

And the greater will be the odds that you'll succeed.